The video surveillance market has seen an increase in demand over the last few years in response to a drop in pricing and improvement of camera technology. Improved capabilities of digital recording devices and new computing platforms capable of video analytics have also contributed to the increase in demand. Applications of video surveillance systems range from intrusion protection to monitoring and tracking of activities in both a known enclosed environment or an unknown dynamic environment, such as in aerial surveillance applications. Further, the need for better video resolution created an interest in using high definition (HD) rates for video surveillance.
Integrated circuits are an integral part of any electronic device including surveillance equipment. A variety of integrated circuits are often used together to enable the operation of the electronic device, such as a video surveillance network. While integrated circuits are typically designed for a particular application, certain integrated circuits may have configurable logic. For example, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) may have portions comprising configurable logic. Another type of integrated circuit which has configurable logic is a programmable logic device (PLD). A programmable logic device is designed to be user-programmable so that users may implement logic designs of their choices. One type of programmable logic device is a Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD). A CPLD includes two or more “function blocks” having a two-level AND/OR structure connected together and to input/output (I/O) resources by an interconnect switch matrix. Another type of programmable logic device is a field programmable gate array (FPGA). In a typical FPGA, an array of configurable logic blocks (CLBs) is coupled to programmable input/output blocks (IOBs). The CLBs and IOBs are interconnected by a hierarchy of programmable routing resources. For both of these types of programmable logic devices, the functionality of the device is controlled by configuration data bits of a configuration bitstream provided to the device for that purpose.
As with any electronic system, there is always a desire to increase the quality and reduce the cost of the system. While a system capturing video data may be used with any type of integrated circuit, image quality and the amount of data required to be processed pose significant problems in implementing the system to meet customer needs.